Osakako Mandala

Comprising over 7,000 individual leaves collected from beneath a tree, this temporary ‘meditative” installation was created in public view over the course of four weeks at Contemporary Art Space Osaka as part of the Robert Callender International Residency.

Images of the Osakako Mandala and installation process at Contemporary Art Space Osaka, Japan
Images of the Osakako Mandala and installation process at Contemporary Art Space Osaka, Japan

Project Overview

Sprouting from the center – in which sits a piece of crumbling cement from just outside the gallery – there are approximately 7,000 leaves in the mandala. Each leaf was picked one-by-one from the ground beneath two trees in “Osakako,” the port-side industrial neighborhood where the gallery is located. After being collected and arranged, the leaves were again placed one-by-one into the gallery to form a large-scale mandala.

The temporary installation was created over the course of four weeks during an ‘open to the public’ build process where visitors could engage with me and, if they wished, in the process of making the mandala itself.

Patrick had to travel away from Japan shortly after the completion of the mandala, so after being displayed for two weeks, the work was ceremoniously released into the sea by the other artists in the exhibition on his behalf. A beautiful gesture.

Project Team and Partners

Conceived and built by Patrick Lydon during his participation in the Robert Callender International Residency for Young Artists,

It was supported in part by funding from the Sasakawa Foundation and Contemporary Art Space Osaka.

Links

The Osakako Mandala gave birth to our Community Nature Mandala workshop.